Churchill's secret war diaries and cigars to be auctioned

London, May 7 (ANI): Steve Forbes, the US publishing magnate and politician, has decided to auction off a collection of Churchill's secret war diaries and cigars.

The collection, amassed over 3 decades will be auctioned off by Christie's, which has described it as "the most important and comprehensive private collection of letters and books related to Winston Churchill ever assembled".

The inscription offers an exciting glimpse into the world of Britain's most notorious KGB spies and one of its greatest heroes a baby photo from 1875, a Cuban cigar given to a guest at the Hotel Bristol in Monte Carlo in 1963, a letter from India in 1896 that talks of Turkish massacres of, and photographs from the war showing him wearing "zip-up shoes".

The prized piece however, is Churchill's engagement diary for the Second World War, priced at between 80,000 pounds and 20,000 pounds. Thirty engagement cards written by private secretaries give details of his appointments from September 1939 to June 1945.

The card for January 1943 includes the Casablanca conference with President Roosevelt and Charles de Gaulle. The US President and his wartime emissary Harry Hopkins are referred to under the codenames "Don Q[uixote]" and "S[ancho] P[anza]".

After late-night meetings and long lunches Churchill and Don Quixote leave for Marrakesh, stopping for a "picnic on way".

"It is a reminder he was a very, very unusual person. British 20th-century politicians on the whole didn't wear bow ties, they didn't smoke Cuban cigars all the time, they didn't take a daily siesta and they did not wear zip-up clothes," Times Online quoted Thomas Venning, director of books and manuscripts at Christie's London as saying.

The sales are expected to attract between 3 million pounds and 5 million pounds. (ANI)